Test Drive Meme

[soulmods]

Test Drive Meme

Prompts Arrival: So you've just arrived in Nyoi-Cho. Congratulations! You must be so excited about having your wish granted. Or maybe you're upset that the result wasn't quite what you expected? If that's the case, then that's too bad! There are no take backs and no redoes, so you're stuck with what you have! Maybe you should have been more careful about how you worded that wish... Oh well. There's no use in dwelling on it. You're a magi now, and that means adjusting to a whole new lifestyle! Maybe one of the townspeople can help you out. Only... they're acting a bit strangely, aren't they? They're all too happy to show you around, but there's something unsettling about the way they're behaving. Almost cheerfully dissonant. Any questions about the history of the town are met with blank stares and brief silence, before they plaster a smile onto their faces and change the subject. Any attempts to tell them about your duties as a magi or anything else that relates to the magical will get similar reactions. Isn't there anyone normal here that you can talk to at all? Home Improvement: The houses that the magi are given access to really are something, aren't they? There's almost no limit to what they can do! Why don't you create the house of your dreams, or maybe recreate and relive your favorite childhood scenes? Invite some spectators over to marvel! A Corrupted Soul Gem: You neglected to take care of your soul gem, and now you don't feel quite yourself anymore. You feel like you're losing your sense of self - all you seem to be able to focus on is your old regrets and past failures. What's happening to you? A Successful Mission: Congratulations! You met up with your first Witch, and you fought valiantly. For your efforts, you've been awarded a grief seed - and with it, access to a brand new power! What sort of power did you get? Is it a useful one, or is it not so useful? Maybe you've mastered it beautifully, and now you're showing off to all of your friends. Maybe you're having a hard time keeping it under wraps, and now you're wreaking havoc across the town without meaning to! A Dreadful Nightmare: You had an absolutely horrid day. As you drift off to sleep, your mind dwells on all the injustices you've had to endure. In response, your bed swallows you up, and your room shifts into a horrific Nightmarescape. What sort of Nightmare are you? What kind of Nightmarescape do you create? Hopefully your fellow magi can stop you before you cause too much damage! Wildcard: Feel free to use any information from the FAQ or the World Info page to make your own prompt!

Comments

Rose Lalonde | Homestuck

[orchid_horror]

[As far as Rose can figure, there are only two explanations for this scenario.

Option one: everything that just happened was completely real, and she is now completely sober, stuck in a town with citizens more unsettling than the many-limbed beings from the outer ring.

Option two: she is in fact in so drunk that she is imagining this all in some alcohol-induced stupor, and she is currently lying on the tiled floor of the meteor with a wine bottle in hand, possibly seconds away from liver failure.

She isn't sure which reality she's hoping for. Still, as long as she is here, she might as well gather intel. If this is a dream, then she'll have a fascinating look into her own psyche; if not, then she gets more information and can form a plan of action. She keeps a keen eye out for anybody who isn't wearing the same unsettling smile that most of the town's citizens are, and as soon as she spots someone, she makes her approach.]

Excuse me. Does something seem a little... off to you?

[mechabadass]

[HI, YOU WERE TALKING TO HIM???]

YES, ACTUALLY!

. . .FOR STARTS, YOU HAVE FIVE FINGERS.

[because that is what warrants investigation amirite]

[orchid_horror]

[Ridiculously, Rose looks down at her hand, just to make sure she actually has five fingers. Yes, they're all there.]

I suppose that could be construed as odd in certain circles. How many fingers should I have, in your opinion?

[...wait, did she just walk up to talk to a robot hedgehog?]

[mechabadass]

[Yes, yes you did.]

FOUR. OBVIOUSLY, BEING AN OVERLANDER.

[Because all of that means something to you, Rose! Surely!



Why do you look so confused]

[orchid_horror]

[Give Rose some credit - she will play along with this for as long as she can manage to bullshit her way through the conversation.]

Oh, yes. An overlander. Certainly, an overlander is exactly what I am, and I could be nothing else. I was tragically granted an extra finger upon arrival to this place. It is an insult to the highest degree.

[jumprope]

[ jumping a little bit at the sudden voice -- kayochin had thought she was completely alone, after all -- she whirls around, bringing a hand to her face, a trouble expression forming ]

O-o-oh! There's someone else!

[ of course in the midst of her timidness, she'd neglected to even hear what the blonde in front of her had even said. ]

D-did you need something?

[orchid_horror]

[At the very least, this girl doesn't hold the same, disquieting mannerisms as the other inhabitants of the city that Rose has come across. She's stuttering and fumbling like a real human would - she might know something.]

Yes, actually. I'm a new arrival here, and I was wondering if I was the only one to find our surroundings a little odd. Have you noticed anything off?

GOD BLESS YOU FOR PLAYING A HS CHAR

[tunedere]

[ Tokiya had just been looking around. Listening to the small white catlike creature had also begun to make him doubt his own eyes, and he would have gone around trying to deconstruct the whole supposed farce if not for the fact that Kyuubey had provided proof. He managed to transform.

Well.

He's back to civilian clothing now, regarding everything with a critical eye. ]

That'd be putting it lightly. The people are strange.

HOMESTUCK IS ALL THAT I KNOW

[orchid_horror]

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice it. I would hate to think that I'm alone in a town full of placid, smiling civilians. It's a little Stepford Wives in execution, honestly.

[She looks at the stranger she's approached with a little more focus, trying to size him up.]

My name is Rose, by the way. Might I ask yours?

I DON'T PLAY HS PEOPLE BUT GOD BLESS

[tunedere]

I doubt it has a harmless reason for being like this.

[ Tokiya hasn't heard of the Stepford Wives reference, but he can guess. ]

Ichinose Tokiya. [ Yeah, he's Japanese. ] Where are you from?

[ Rose might notice he stands up quite straight and holds himself almost formally. His expression isn't exactly cheerful, either - more of the stoic, reserved type of seriousness. ]

[miasmajesty]

Sure does.

[ But what doesn't these days. He says it without even really looking, a hand shoved in his pocket and the other poised and ready to summon a weapon from his -- gem?? Sylladex? ]

Gonna go ahead and assume that I ain't the only one not in Kansas anymore, as I'm sure as shit we didn't all just decide to take a trip to the middle of absofuckinglutely nowhere.

[ And then turning and -- suddenly face to face with best-friends-alt-mom-slash-daughter. ]

Uh.

[orchid_horror]

[The stranger's style of talking is familiar to Rose - like Dave, but not entirely like Dave. And when he turns to face her, she gets the exact same impression. Like Dave, but not entirely Dave.

She takes a moment to think this information over. Thank god she's sober for this.]

Forgive me if this is a strange question, but would you happen to be Dave Strider's brother?

[miasmajesty]

Yeah. He's my bro. Dirk Strider is the name.

[ In a sense. He gets the feeling he doesn't need to hash it out with her, though. ]

Rose. Right?

[joylesslove]

Off? No, why would it?

[Unfortunately, the woman Rose has chosen to speak to is a little off herself. If the pre-industrial petticoat and bonnet weren't enough of a giveaway, there's also the fact that her lips don't actually move when she replies.]

The people here, they are so happy. Is this not a good thing?

[She tilts her head curiously, eyes blinking but the rest of her face remains completely expressionless. Upon closer observation, Rose will discover that this isn't a human she's speaking to at all, but rather a rather realistic doll of a woman, complete with articulate joints and working eyelids.

She doesn't quite understand human emotions entirely, and a lot of things about expression are lost to her, so the Doll is genuinely in the dark as to what Rose might be concerned about. Everyone around here seems suitably human to her, at least?]

I must admit, though, there were never so many people in the Hunter's Dream at once. I would not call it 'off,' but it is... very different.

[orchid_horror]

[Well. It seems that the person she's decided to talk to is off in a totally different way from the people in the town. A brief shudder runs down her spine when she hears a voice and sees no lips moving, but she quickly moves past it. Unlike some people she knows, she isn't particularly scared of dolls.]

There is a difference between being happy because you have reason to be and being happy because that is all that you can be, if that makes sense. I have the feeling that the people here are primarily the latter.

And it would be remiss of me not to ask - what is the "Hunter's Dream" you're speaking of?

[joylesslove]

I would not know.

[She blinks. Apparently whatever artist had crafted her had even thought to give her fully movable eyelids, although the rest of her face remains stiff and lifeless. Fortunately, she doesn't stare at Rose for long - her owners, along with her experiences, having taught her better than to maintain eye contact for too long.

She bows her head like a servant girl might, but continues to speak nonetheless.]

Ah, I am sorry, but I do not understand what is wrong. If they were made to feel this way, does that make their happiness any less real?

[Her voice isn't accusatory in any way; instead, it's soft and warm, with a sight accent to it. She speaks as if she's genuinely curious as to what Rose finds to be the problem.]

The Hunter's Dream is the world I arrived from - my home. It was... small, compared to this place. There was only one building, and humans were seen far less often than I can see here.

[chainsawstick]

[ That voice. Without even need to think about it Kanaya whips around, to face the voice from behind, all too familiar as it is. It's a voice that makes her bloodpump squeeze uncomfortably in her chest, belonging to a person who shouldn't be here at all, or anywhere really, outside of a Dream Bubble. Because this is darkest timeline kanaya, and things just had no right being this easy or nice. Hell, she herself was dead, and she's pretty sure she didn't use her wish on bringing herself back, but its all fuzzy to her exactly what her wish was..

But none of that matters now, because this is Rose, or some flavor of Rose that still needs to be sussed out with a little conversing. Which she will get right to. Just as soon as she figures out how to speak again, her squawk gaper appropriately agape in surprise. ]

[orchid_horror]

[Ah.

Rose isn't quite sure what she feels upon seeing Kanaya again. Surprise, for one. A bit of relief at seeing a friendly face. Guilt. Confusion. She and Kanaya were still together when Rose had made her wish, but how much of their relationship had Rose drowned under her own inebriation? Her last clear memory of Kanaya is of her destroying can town, admonishing her for being drunk right before the big day. Now, Kanaya probably thinks her a useless idiot.

Rose clears her throat. She doesn't even know that this Kanaya is from the same timeline as her, or that she remembers any of that. She just needs to... power through this awkwardness.]

Kanaya. How... nice to see you.

[Yes, if somebody could bury her alive now, that would be greatly appreciated.]

[chainsawstick]

[ Kanaya's face is as hard to read as ever, despite the obvious surprise. Because her own memories are only slightly more than Rose's. Reaching Earth. Meeting the other humans. Managing to continue to not really make her relationship with Rose any better right before she ended up vaporized by a certain Fish Bitch.

But she doesn't even know where they stand either, because as they've learned, this is a two way scuttlebuggy thoroughfare. It's a give and take type thing. Though Kanaya's been feeling like someone has been taking a lot more than she has been giving amongst the two of them.

Which leads her to awkwardly try to think of a reply, blinking a few times before she speaks. ] Yes. Um. Hi. Rose. It's also the same...I mean I'm also the same. Nice to see you, I mean.

[chainedlight]

[Oh goodness, was someone speaking to her that wasn't a weirdly smiling townsfolk? What a relief! Naminé's shoulders relax a little, and she offers Rose a small and shy smile as she answers her question.]

Mmn, yes... it seems all the natives to this place are acting rather... happy, if you could quite call it that.

[orchid_horror]

[The small smile initially has Rose worried that she's just talking to another citizen, but thankfully the words that follow clear things up.]

By the sounds of things, you are not a native either. Would it be presumptuous to guess that you also made a wish that brought you here?

[chainedlight]

I did, yes.

[Naminé nods slightly, though thinking back on the whole wish business make the tension return to her shoulders as a frown crosses back over her face.]

We were taken here to be protectors of this world, I think they said.

[godseer]

[ She's wearing her orange hooded sari, which hides her strikingly pale hair, so it's only natural that she wouldn't be recognized from the other side. But as she turns, Rose finds herself face-to-face with ... herself. ]

I'd say something is, yes. [ She blinks, trying to comprehend. ] Another timeline?

[orchid_horror]

[Well this is... bizarre. Rose narrows her eyes slowly, unsure of if this is a trick or not. Another timeline would make sense, and the only thing making her distrust herself is the vaguely devious nature of the white cat creature that had brought her here in the first place.

She's going to get to the bottom of this.]

I can only presume. Based on your outfit, you hit god tier as well, which means you probably escaped the scratch. What's the last thing you remember from your timeline?

[godseer]

[ Rose looks away. If she's beating herself up so much over her own decision, she expects her other self to have the same reaction. ]

I asked the white ... thing [ was it a cat? ] to speed up the next three years a bit. I'm not sure whether this was the intended effect.